Fastcore Photos - Issue #2

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SSUE #2

CONTENT

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Reviews V* Hello all,

Double Negative, Devour, Corrosion of Conformity 4

Burma, Kakka Hata 77, Acid Reflux 8 a Looks like you're back again! My first issue was an epic 2010 recap of

Old Painless, Buy The Steak, Thieves, Chest Pain 10 pictures issue. This issue is quite a bit different... this one turns out

Natural Law, Dystrophy, Trapper, Dethroned Emporer, Burma- 14 to be a collection of show reviews I wrote for Maximum Rock'!' Roll's

Dropdead, Magrudergrind, Wasted Time, Cough, Ilsa 19 website for a column called "Wow, What A Show." I'd like to thank Paul,

the web coordinator, and all the lovely people at MRR. After the show

_, V reviews are photos I've taken that didn't make it onto MRR's website.

Photos
P . Si PA . Another big thanks goes to Kent and Ebullition. I never thought I d do

T .? OA «j anything but give away issue #1 to friends and sell a dozen out of my

Li cyans *J4 J^ webstore, so thank you. The last and most major thank you goes to Jace

Direct Control 25 i Kuhrl) wh0 did the ent i re layout front to back for this zine. Totally an

Shards 25 ^ B * awesome dude.

Logic Problem 26 fl^Lgj- ■_*-■■_ • '.m^^uw.-.^^.v 1 . ■«*_^ajp_^_*_^ h j1 -. m ^ m _

Man Will Destroy Himself 26 |M Let me end with a generic punk aphorism: go out there and book a show,

Leather 27 Wj start a band, videotape a band, take pictures... do something other than

Stripmines 27 I ] iying in front of the television and wasting your life in the stupid-
Backslider 28 j I es * damn ways. Ride a bike, have some fun, when you're done having fun..

Leather 28 lU write your own zine and send it to me!

Big Eyes 29 i^^^*-?-*" 1 " -

w , r , 11T , , „, ,„ nr , m vVill Butler

Man vVill Destroy Himself 29 H _ . _, . ,

w . „ m . M . ^ {^W Pastcore Pnotos / To Live A Lie Records

NimousTerntix 29 Hi wcbutler@gmaiLcoin

Wall 30 | | http://www.flickr.com/fastcore

Dodsfalla 30 Vj^,

Disciples Of Christ 31 !**V

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.2/11/2010 - DOUBLE NEGATIVE, DEVOUR,
WITH SURPRISE GUESTS CORROSION OP CONFORMITY

A secret show!

Well, not really a secret show,
but a secret band playing an
all-ages house show. The show
was billed as Double Negative
and friends. I would draw this
out and make it nice and mys-
terious but I'm pretty sure the
reason you're reading this is be-
cause their name is in the title
of thia. Corrosion of Conformity
was indeed slated to play a
low-key house show with Double
Negative and Devour. Holy shit.
When I saw COC play two months
ago at King's, it was packed,
cost me $12, and everyone stood
around while the band played
on stage. Tonight had none of
these expensive, drab, or imper-
sonal elements.

I showed up at a time I thought
was going to be a little late,
half on purpose and half be-

cause my record label work i
neverending (like the story...
nah nah nah, nah nah nah, nah
nah nah).

Turns out that I arrived right
on time for DOUBLE NEGATIVE to
be loading gear into the dank
basement of Dregg's Grotto,
and in little time they were
pounding out fast blasts left
and right. There was one brand
new song, I later found out is
titled "Do the Writhe," which
was a slower jam that I liked a
lot. They belted out about f ou
other new songs, newer than
the Daydreamnation LP. Good
quality set, people were sing-
ing along to the older stuff, x
thought Kevin was pouring Pour
Loko on himself at one point
but then realized it was just
water from a SIGG bottle. Over-
all solid set. -/- doesn't have
off nights.

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DOUBLE HEGATIVI

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Next was CORROSION OP CON-
FORMITY, playing second just
in case cops came to the house.
The band is now back to their
Animosity-era three-piece
lineup, which consists of Woody,
Kike, and Reed. Their set is a
little hazy in my brain since
I was somehow simultaneously
taking pictures, recording HD
video with my fancy new cell-
phone, and recording audio.
Unfortunately the audio didn't
record for unknown reasons.
Things I did pick out: perpetual
raging out, killer hair whip
by Sir Mullin while drumming
(which in turn whipped me when
I moved from the front row to

the back of the room), and dudes
from Double Negative with huge
smiles on their faces. Yes, they
played "Technocracy."

After their set, since I was
right behind their drummer, I
chatted with him for a second. I
assume people who have been in
bands forever... aren't exactly
jerks but are kind of weird
when you compliment them. I
patted him on the back and said
they sounded great and that
I had seen them previously. I
was greeted with some fancy
handshake work and kind words
back. Later on I said a similar
positive remark to their gui-
tarist as his arms were full
of equipment and he promptly
stopped and was super excited
as well. Another two notes here:
(1) they played a free/donations
suggested house show, and (2)
they didn't set up merch. So all
this compounded on me thinking
these guys are just... well, there
isn't a better word for this,
but they are sweethearts. Sure,
they didn't have to drive too
far, as they live in the nearby
areas, but none of the hype or
28 years of being a band has
left these guys greedy or full
of themselves.

Upon telling my friend Hank
that I was probably going to
write this up, he told me that
any good show review includes
quotes from the night. So this
quote of the night is per Hank
Williams (yes, that's my friend's
real name!) quoting someone
else at the show who said, tc This
show is like a colostomy bag of
mayhem."

DEVOUR went on last. The place
thinned out a bit, not in a bad
way but in the perf ect-amount-
of -people type of way. I think
they were having mic problems
because at some point I real-

local Raleigh house shows, this
def intely took the cake for
2010. 1 don't imagine having the
chance to see one of the found-
ing crossover bands in such an
intimate setting again.

ized I couldn't hear any of
Cody's vocals. Mic issues seem
to be a curse at Raleigh house
shows. Another side note: the
soundboard they were using
said "Wiley PTA" on the side. Up
until then it was sounding awe-
some... I hope we didn't kill some
poor school's sound system.

Devour held their own after
following a crushing set from
COG. Scathing, disjointed, dys-
topian psycho-blather. Notes of
interest: Daniel did some cool
delay-pedal guitar loops be-
tween songs, and Dave was wear-
ing a really cute argyle mock
turtleneck sweater.

I'll leave you abruptly with
this, this year has been a great
year for music for me. As far as

®

11/13/2010 - BURMA, KAKKA HATA 77, ACID REFLUX

The first cold snap hit hard in
November, well as cold as it will
get randomly around then in
North Carolina. I got sick as hell
for a few weeks and hardly went
out around that time. One excep-
tion was a show on the 13th that
I had been looking forward to
for quite some time. I'll admit to
being lame and I was not actu-
ally familiar with the band from
Finland. I had seen their name
before because it is proudly
displayed on the front of a MRR
that lives in my bathroom. Any-

who, I had managed to see Acid
Reflux a town over about nine
months ago and was really ex-
cited about seeing them again. I
really like bands with little to
no internet presence. So on to the
actual show...

KAKKA-HAT A 77 played a solid
set. Very clean and snotty punk.
People were getting into it, and
I was having fun and taking
pictures with my ADHD-addled
brain. Next up was ACID REFLUX.
I talked to them after the show

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BURMA

and found out that this was
their last tour as a band! So this
was my second and last time to
see them play. Everyone raged
extraordinarily hard for them
and I was pretty surprised at the
number of people who knew their
lyrics and were shouting along.
Ira, who booked the show and
put it on at his house, was going
insanely nuts the entire time and
I couldn't help but laugh at the
faces he was making (see the top
picture on the opposite page for
proof) . Sparklers were affixed
to their guitar while playing
for some reason. The band must
have stopped through South of
the Border. After Acid Reflux
played, the place emptied out
before the last band. Unfortu-
nate, but I think the reason this
happened was the fact that the
last band was supposed to be a
surprise band and all the out of

town bands had already played.
So next and last up was BURMA.
They are a group of younger kids
who were X'ed up and seem to play
a sort of hybrid Converge/Infest
style. The mic (happened to be
my mic) got decimated during the
Acid Reflux set so Matt just ran
around stomping and screaming
as loud as he could. He somehow
punched his own face so hard he
was bleeding at the end of their
set. Drumming was on point. The
night concluded with Acid Re-
flux running around shooting
off fireworks and I think they
all antiqued each other faces
with confectionery sugar. All I
was thinking at this point of the
night was that I had to get out
of here before I had to put up a
rowdy band at my house, and that
I actually had a really great
night full of some varying styles
of music. Distort Raleigh!

9/18/2010 - OLD PAINLESS, BUY THE STEAK, THIEVES,
AND CHEST FAIN

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Since this show was about three
months ago, a lot of the nuances
have melted out of my brain.
That being said, I'm going to
keep this short and sweet. This
was a surprisingly good show,
full of some bands you probably
have never heard of (and at the
time I had yet to hear). So here
is what went down in the dingy
basement of Dregg's Grotto in
Raleigh on September 18 of 2010.

The first band to play was OLD
PAINLESS. Their first show
ever was the night before, when
they played in Greensboro at
Legitimate Business and opened
for Hails. Let me say, holy crap,
what a second show! Rewind to a
couple months ago. I'm friends
with their drummer Rodney and
we were eating at Chubby's Ta-
cos. He was telling me about the
new band he just started with
Josh Dobey, Rich Lombardi (from
Cloacal Kiss and The Sawtooth
Grin), and Alex Taylor (from
Stripmines). He dropped the word
grindcore on me and my heart
sank a little bit.

I'm a fervent lover of grindcore,
but any time I've heard that
genre referenced in NC, it just
means watered down Discordance
Axis style music to the point it
is just sped up metalcore. This
was definitely not the case. Very
technical grindy parts, lots of
of super fast blasts (Rodney is
a world class drummer), and I re-
ally enjoyed Rich's stage pres-

Af ter Old Painless, BUY THE
STEAK took the stage (well, took
the basement). I had just started
to see these folks come out to
shows so it was cool to see their
band. Female-f ronted thrash met-
al from Garner, North Carolina.
Fun band. I remembered thinking
their guitar player, Logan Hol-
loway, looked like an old man in
the hat he was wearing. Unfortu-
nately, I think you can add this
band to the list of short-lived,
defunct bands from the area.

Next was an awesome surprise set
by THIEVES, who wasn't slated to
play this show. I'm pretty sure

this only happened because
my roommate kept chanting
for them to play since all the
guys happen to be at the show,
so they borrowed equipment
and played a ripping quick set.
Their bass player Ben loves to
do quirky things at every show
he plays... I remember him wear-
ing a full 80's workout getup, he
wore a suit once, and I think he
even wore a bear costume at one
show. Since it wasn't scripted,
I think he decided to sit down
in the corner and played bass
while sitting Indian style
against the wall to add to
his repertoire. On to how they
sounded: They sounded awesome.
Super fast and thrashy hard-
core. Rodney (yeah, the same one
who drums for Old Painless also
sings for Thieves) got up in my
face a lot while I was taking
pictures. Thieves was definitely
ON this night.

Last to play was CHEST FAIN. All
I knew beforehand is that they
were a powerviolence band. That
could mean a number of things

to me... much like my thoughts on
grindcore above, but I had high
hopes because they are from
Texas. I had corresponded with
Katt from the band a few times
but had somehow never heard
them and couldn't find any mu-

m

sic online. I was very positively
surprised with their style of
visceral and blasting powervio-
lence. Any band who has a shirt-
less singer with a gauntlet on is
good by me. I also remember the
guitar player bending back-
wards so much that he looked
like has about to snap his back
and Matt ended up chomping his
bass strings at the very end.
Quite a night for a show when I
didn't know what to expect.

.2/30/2010 - NATURAL LAW, DYSTROPHY, TRAPPER,
DETHRONED EMPORER, BURMA

Perfect timing for a slightly
out of town show... I had Friday
off for Hew Year's so a show
an hour away wasn't a stretch.
This was originally going to
be in a Raleigh basement but
due to some roommate issues, it
got moved to a Greensboro show
space called CFBG. Word is that
the place is a dance studio, and
it had some cool artwork up.
Appears to be a business where
the owner is nice enough to let
bands come play.

Technical difficulties caused a
short delay. I think a FA needed
to be brought or found or set
up. A large bass cab was then set
up for vocals. BURMA went on
shortly after. They share mem-
bers across Raleigh and Green
boro so they are a perfect band
to have already been booked to
play in Raleigh and to also play
this night in the other town.

09

BURMA

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They pumped out some jams to a
room of smiling faces. I think
I must have been spoiled by
Matt's antics at their last show
when he went off... tonight he
wasn't as energized and bloody,
although a guitar was swung
fairly close to his head a few
times. There were shouts for a
Minor Threat cover but alas no
cover. The great thing about
Minor Threat is the fact that is
really hard to ruin their songs,
they are both solid and sloppy,
so I always enjoy seeing one
covered.

Following Burma was DYSTRO-
PHY. I was really hoping this

was the Cali thrash punk band
who put out We're Nice Kids,
but it turns out this particu-
lar Dystrophy still rules and
also contains my friend Matt
Thompson... quite a pleasant
surprise. This Dystrophy is a
H J area death metal band. Lots
of riff age which had quite a
few people jumping around and
getting wild. They played a
solid long set and even covered
a Death song.

This next band I had never
heard of before, but based on
their look, I was highly inter-
ested. DETHRONED EMPORER
took stage (took floor). The
guest vocalist during the Dys-
trophy set is on drums and their
singer as the guy I noticed
wearing a Cryptic Slaughter

jacket earlier in the night. His
guitar setup was super loud and
crunchy on sound check. Later on
I noticed he has two instrument
cables coming out of his guitar
and each cable was connected to
a different head connected to
the same stack. I talked to him

later as I was super curious and
he gave me an overly technical
answer that I forget most of,
but I know he was running each
pickup to a different amp head
and he mentioned taking off his
volume pot and running 1Q out

to overdrive the whole rig, 7
believe. The sound of this two-
piece death metal band was more
familiar to me than the previ-
ous band. They obviously draw
a lot of influence from early
grind. They had a few parts
containing what I call the mince
beat... that really awesome
slowed down grind beat that

DYSTROPHY

hi

Agathocles is known f o

The second to last band that
played was TRAPPER. Their
second guitar player was nice

and talked to me earlier in the
show and I was in kind of a quiet
mood so I felt like a douche, so
I wanted to make sure to get
some good pictures of them. The
band hails from Charlotte and
the other guitar player helped
to book the show at this venue.

slow down... lots of bounding
around and bending backward}
Some of this stuff falls off my
radar as I write it off as Bridge
9/Converge type jams... in actu-
ality they are probably more
along the lines of Doomrider or
Wails.

The final band is one I had

Trapper had a definite hard-
core sound but did have some
darker guitar tone which was
crunchy at times and I noticed
sludge influence. I spent most
of their set trying to get a pic-
ture of the singer who wouldn't

heard so much about but had
not actually heard, NATURAL
LAW. The fine folks from Double
Negative talked about them in
high regards and Ira wouldn't

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shut up about their Slump EF,
so I was excited to see them. The
band shares members with Black
Kites and seems to be a scattered
lew England/DC crowd. I later
found out that their bass player
lives with two members of Death-
rats. The band played non-stop
hardcore jams that definitely
gives a nod to Double Negative
but with its own originality. You
really should do yourself a fa-
vor and track down their demo or
7". Definitely worth a listen!

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\0WED EMPORER

3/12/2011 - DROPDEAD, M AGRUDERGROT), WASTED
TIME, COUGH, ILSA

The almighty Providence grind/
violence band DROPDEAD hasn't
played a show in DC in thirteen
years! Well, all that changed
when the band drove all the
way down just to play DC and
turn around and go back on with
their normal lives.

I'm not sure if anyone likes
a show review to be more like
a journal or not but I think
it makes it more interesting,
and I'm the one writing here so
you'll have to deal with it for
now. The kids of Burma, a local
Raleigh band, were nice enough
to let me tag along with them
on the way up to the show. Had
an entertaining ride up. We
then caught up with Greg from
Deathrats (sorry this seems to
be shout-out heaven right here),
who was nice enough to show
us around town for an hour or
two before the show. We went to
Smash and Crooked Beat Records,

and then by Sticky Fingers
bakery so that I could get a
killer vegan cinnamon bun and
some coffee to get me amped
up for the night (and so that I
wouldn't crash early because I
woke up at 9 a.m.) As we roll back
to the house, Greg starts to flip
out as there is a van parked
in front of the house. He looks
over at me and says something
to the extent of, Please don't
let me flip out - Dropdead is
over at my house now." Awesome
nice folks. I had met Ben a few
times before as he has toured
down with bands and when Drop-
dead played Richmond for Best
Friends Day a few years ago. A
quick aside: When they played
Richmond it was one of the most
insane house shows I've ever
been to. The show got moved from
a venue to a house, the house's
basement ceiling got ripped
down during their set and I was
clinging to the water heater for

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protection.

Past forward to actual show
time. The show was at a church a
few blocks from Greg's house and
even fewer blocks from Sticky-
Fingers, where we had gotten
some eats earlier in the day.
Really awesome setup for shows.
ILSA went on first. This is the
only band I had no idea about
before seeing them. Pretty
good down-tuned sludge/doom. I
noticed one person in that band
who I recognized but couldn't
place it at all. I later realized
he was in a two-younger-kid
grindcore band I had seen maybe
four years ago in Baltimore
called Wyld Stallyns. I had
always wondered what happened
to people from that band so was
excited to make that connection.
Aptly, COUGH followed. Sludge
jams, back-to-back. I saw the
band five years ago and the
singer was too obliterated to
stand up, so the new configu-
ration of the band was a huge
improvement. I tried my darnd-
est to get pictures of the band
to where they didn't have hair

splaying in their faces but
didn't have much luck. I know
COUGH is on tour with SJAGRUD-
ERGRIID and I think that is a
perfect combination... a crawling
slow band and a ripping fast
seem to compliment each other
perfectly.

Next to play was WASTED TIME.

The band rips every time.
Slightly different than any
band playing the night, but was
somehow a perfect transition
between the sludge and grind
bands. I was standing at oh so
the wrong place during their
set and was about to get my cam-
era smashed by a stagedive when
the guy realized what I had in

my hand and made a f eline-esque
leap right over my head. Later
in the set I turned around and
saw three different people
holding their noses, people
were in the pit crowd killing
and freaking out really hard
for the band. Later in the night
I had the pleasure of meeting
Kark and Alex from the band
for the first time, and got to
say hey to the lovely Brandon
as well.

I was stoked to see that it was
early, only about 10:30 or so,
before KAGRUDERGRIHD goes
on. Their band is definitely one
of my favorite bands... solid
songs as well as solid guys. Some
bands have just one guy you can
approach about the band, but
each member of this band is very
approachable and has something
quite interesting and different
to say. Good personality both
in the music and the people,
you could say. Back to the music
part of it, they delivered a
helping of grindcore mayhem in-
side that church. Lots of stage-

®

dives and smiling f ace*
Last was the cherry on top of
an already awesome show, DROP-
DEAD... lords of grindcore and
purveyors of animal rights.
During the whole set, people
were clamoring to share the
mic with Bob as he was belting
out song after song. I really
don't even know what to say
that gives them justice. I felt
kind of awkward as I was the
only person on stage during
their set but I had a bird's eye

MAGRUDERGRIUD

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view of the maniacs in the pit.
I saw even more people holding
their noses as if each person in
the place was systematically
punched squarely in the nose. I
think they did their thirteen-
year absence justice.

I normally focus on the good
parts of a show. There unfortu-
nately were a few fights, mainly
near the end of the night. Both
Michelle from Sick Fix and Greg
seemed to do a good job keeping
things under control I thought
Bobby Egger from Headcount
Records was about to jump in
and break up one fight. I'm an
outsider to things that go on in
DC so I hope nothing was more
serious than someone got hit
wrong in the mosh pit or some-
thing.

My night concluded back at a
house with DROFDEAD, eating
the biggest piece of vegan pizza
I have ever seen. Amazing show,
good town, good trip, awesome
friends. Thanks to Chris Moore
for putting the show on.

LIBYANS

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